1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a product displaying system and a purchase behavior analysis program for collecting information representing purchase behavior of customers for various kinds of products displayed on display shelves in retail stores (purchase behavior information), and more particularly relates to a product displaying system and a purchase behavior analysis program for collecting purchase behavior information of customers for products based on the numbers of times the customers picked up the products from the display shelves and behavior of the customers.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, retail stores use display shelves in which the products are displayed in rows thereon and customers pick up a displayed product and purchases the product or returns the product onto the shelves. Retail stores and product makers desires to collect behavior information of the customers for the products displayed on the display shelves, analyze purchase behavior information of the customers based on the customers' (consumers') behavior and lay out a merchandising strategy with more appropriate product development/displaying method/product supplement.
Purchase behavior information of customers purchasing products has been conventionally collected by employing researchers who monitor the behavior of the customers and take notes of the kind of products the customers picked up and the frequencies that each product is picked up. The purchase behavior information collected in such a way lacks in correctness and objectivity.
A technique to collect purchase behavior information of customers is disclosed in the Patent Document 1. The Patent Document 1 discloses a technique to specify the product picked up by a customer by using a display shelf having a plurality of spaces for displaying products and an IC tag reader installed on such a location that the IC tag reader can read information stored in a noncontact IC tag equipped with each product when the product is picked up by a customer, such that the IC tag reader reads IC tag information and source ID information of a product when the product is picked up from the shelf and stores the information in a database.
Also disclosed in the Patent Document 2 is an analyzing technique in which information on whether or not the products equipped with IC tags are picked up by customers, information of the routes customers have taken in the retail store and information of the length of time customers stayed on a particular location on the retail store are obtained and the obtained information is combined to specify the products which was not purchased by customers analyze the reason.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 2005 92376.
Patent Document 2: Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 2004-348681.